We made a new layout for the blog! We decided for us a simple but modern layout and we hope you like it. We tested the design under windows and Mozilla, Opera, Chrome und IE. The IE have some little problems with modern codes so you can't see all there, but it works.

With the new layout we updated also the personal sites of us and contacts. In this case we set TheArtist and Katan on the status "Inactive Member". Both of them have too much things to do at the moment and not the time for blogging, but maybe in the future they will come back.

So we hope you have fun with the new layout and visit us every day :D!

because I'm sick and less of time I want to show you this time a project of a friend, Markus aka DarkSpawn.weil ich zur Zeit krank bin und kaum Zeit finde möchte ich euch ein Projekt von einem Freund vorstellen, Markus aka DarkSpawn

He is a german sculpter and painter and finished one of his actually sculpts. Er ist ein deutscher Modellierer und Maler und hat eines seiner aktuellen Projecte beendet.

The Imperial Japanese War machine continues to gather more troops to fight in the great war.. Slowly units are gathering their supplies and moving to the front lines to defend against the Goliath that is the American Forces.

With this update, we see 2 Infantry units coming to 8 men apiece. Each with a LMG to hold the enemy forces down.

2 Smaller commander units of Grenadiers with their Knee Mortars are coming to bare, however some of their members are not fully ready for the fight ahead.

In order to be the best prepared, a sniper team has been called in to set up ahead of the fights.

Our Second Lieutenant and his faithful henchman stand in the background barking out orders to all in the platoon ahead of battle.

But sensing that this is not enough, the HQ has brought in some "extras". Starting with a squad of Militia to help soak up some fire from the enemies MMGs and light arms fire..

And to help deal with Shermans and whatever other nonsense vehicles decide to come out and play.. some Anti-Tank Kamikaze units.. ready to put their life on the line I ( literally! ) in order to stop them!

Hopefully the war machine that is the Imperial Japanese forces will have more reinforcements for future engagements. Additional units to get a decent fighting force can be seen in the WIP photo below before some of the LMGs, Knee Mortars, and Militia were finished.

Excuse the photos above though, but since this is a table top army the painting quality is not the best. But the feel of the army is beginning to grow within it!

In my first post about the undead nightwatch I explained my doing on the base. If you missed it, check out the post HERE. Now it´s time to show you how I built him. but before let me explain my thoughts about the project as a small reminder.

I really like skeletons because of two reasons: The first one is the character. Usual they look dark, evil and to dead to kill them again. They are creatures from hell and rise from the dead. All in all undeads or more skeletons are my incarnation of evil. The second reason is more the practicable use of the models. They are very easy to dismantle and the plastic bits allows a big bunch of new postures. Additionally to that they are faster to paint because it´s less surfaces to paint and the atmosphere comes with the sourounding.

These two reasons make the kind of miniatures to one of my favourites. With this miniature I would like to create amore living character. It should look more "alive", in best case emotional. So I built a posture without the common fighting influences. The focus is more on a daily activity by the skeleton. He could be a nightwatch in an medieval undead city and do his job by checking the correct time in the old clock tower ...

That´s the backround. Contrary to my usual doing with creating a miniature on a story base, I had now clue about the final looking of the whole composition. The base idea of the base came after I created the nightwatch.

Enough thoughts, let´s go to work!

It starts with small steps ....

... to generate a neutral standing position away from the fighting and running stand.

Putting more bits on it.

Metalsticks are always looking more realistic than the plastic shafts.

The front armour need some straps.

With a combination of one part Greenstuff and one part Miliput ...

... I sculpted these straps.

The combination of both putties generates harder edges and it´s easier to sand it after drying.

I don´t like to sculpt big things with putty. Instead of this I used metal foil and thin wire to create a kilt and a belt. The good side of the material is, you can do it again and again and again in case of you don´t like your result. When it was fine, I fixed it with superglue. With a small layer of liquid Greenstuff the kilt looks more like cloth.

Adding more details.

More and more details, and finished ready to paint!

What I have been learned after the whole process is that the details are very important for a good miniature and story. You can be a very very good painter, but with it also essential to bring as much details on a model as you can. It gives more live to it and forms a true character.

Wow, what another busy weekend! The second Cambs workshop
has been and gone and it was just as exhausting as the first! My journey
started on the Friday, travelling to John’s (aka megazord_man) where I met up
with the teacher for the weekend, Rafa! We spent the evening eating take away,
drinking White Russians and talking about the hobby and our communities, that
is, until Rafa rekindled his addiction for first person shooters, it was a sad
day in virtual Columbia!

As the sun rose Kyle (Mr Lee) pulled up to take us up to Inner Sanctum.

All the tables were set up with a handful of students
already in place, it didn’t take long to get everything set and have all the
students arrive. Rafa started by talking about the theory behind his painting,
how he creates contrast, how he uses colour theory inks, luminosity and
saturation, as Rafa’s talk drew to a close everyone started to put their savage
orks together and get them primed, individually, myself and Rafa went around
everyone looking at the colours they had chosen, seeing if people choices could
be pushed or were in need of a tweak or two.

Lunch came quite quickly after basecoats had been placed, a
lot of us had to check in to our hotel during, the establishment had a touch of
Fawlty Towers and the owner was seemingly doing his best Alan Partridge
impression, It as an odd experience to say the least!

After Lunch the students pressed on under the watch of Rafa,
applying highlights and shadows, Rafa went into detail about how the placement of
light and shadow and defines volume and how important volume is for the
creation of realism . The day quickly drew to a close and we retired for some
great food and a few drinks! Rafa and Kyle shared had a beautiful moment sharing
a slice of cake! <3

The next day started with splitting the class in to two
groups, myself and Rafa had discussed everybody’s progression on the first day
and we felt that some of the students would benefit greatly from having a
stronger technical foundation, so I took 5 students over to another table so we
could focus on brush strokes, painting consistency, glazing and creating volume
whilst Rafa continued to push the other students.

Breaking the group up for an hour or two really allowed us
to give everyone a lot of one on one time and give immediate feedback on their
progression, my group’s technical ability took a big step forward which allowed
them to apply the more advanced ideas Rafa was teaching quicker and easier.

Rafa was able to solidify his ideas with the other group and
then adapt his teaching to their progression, helping them to refine their work
whilst being bolder with the choices they made. Kyle was challenged to start
using more saturated colours, Rafa tasked him to create the colours he used
with just black and white and the 3 primary colours, Kyle ended up with
something that had a nice level of saturation and is looking for another
project he can apply that idea to.

My students re-joined the rest of the group, Rafa had been
checking in on their progress but now Rafa started to work with them one on one,
reinforcing the lessons from yesterday, going back over some of the points he
discussed with his group, whilst giving feedback on contrast, colour theory and
volume. I then went around the other group giving feedback from my point of
view on how they could stretch contrast they had already established and potentially
add other types of contrast. At this point, we lost two out our workshopeers to
ill health, we wish them both well!

As 6 O’clock drew nearer the workshop started to wind down
as peoples concentration began to waver, Rafa and I made one last pass on the
students, again giving feedback and advice, then began the clean up which was
nice and fast actually with everyone help! Then it was on to the goodbyes, I
headed back with Rafa, Kyle and John, before heading home Monday morning.

I just want to thank everyone who attended, it was great to
have another event at Inner Sanctum and I hope to continue to help strengthen
the community in Cambridge!

John

If you'd like to see more pictures from the workshop head over to our facebook page!

So the local club, Sad Muppets, in my town/village area started up an escalation league for Bolt Action. Starting at 600 pts and working up to 1200 or so.. Perfect opportunity to paint up some WWII forces, and more importantly.. the mighty Banzai shouting Japanese that I have always had my eye on!

With this in mind, and with the starter box picked up from a previous convention, I slapped some paint on the models to get an idea of where this could go.

The top 5 guys were painted up to give me an idea of how the army might look. Though I have to say that soon after painting them.. I realized that to do an army of them this would take forever... considering that it was almost 3 hrs per model above.. and when looking at what I have in the wings to paint up.. I am not looking forward to that!

My 800 pts force for next week's game. And some extras on the side.

Rest of the infantry forces yet to be based, but at least are assembled!

Yeah.. the change of mindset is in order here. I don't want/care to have a super high end painted showcase army to play with.. but I wouldn't mind having this force done within a reasonable amount of time.

So I took a "few" steps back and changed up my painting style here a bit. Reduced the steps in the process, reduced the smoothness of the paint, and went back to a pure: Basecoat/Wash/Highlight mentality for the forces. First to get the treatment is the Second Lieutenant and his guard.

Very simple work here.. less than 45 minutes combined between the 2, and I think I can cut a few more corners to make them even faster! Maybe after cutting a few more corners, I can come back for a bit of pin highlighting on some points to make them pop while on the table. But for now.. this is decently fine for the tabletop!

More so when put alongside my first piece of armor that I have painted in a very very long time now!

Expect many more WIP shots (hopefully some with my camera instead of cell phone!) of these forces throughout the next weeks as I get more and more of it painted up for the escalation campaign forthcoming. And hopefully by the end of the whole ordeal I will have a semi-nicely painted up IJA force to play with on a more regular basis!

Any comments on how to play them.. please put them in the comments! And if you like the scheme then also post below! Cheers

Long time no hear but everything is for a reason. I did it, changed my workbench. But not only for another room. I changed the complete sourounding in a new city!
After 34 years of being in Berlin and a finished study last year, it´s time to go for new challenges. In my case me and my girlfriend decided to move to the beautiful city HAMBURG!

Emblem of Hamburg

A move to a new city is always a big challenge. You have to organize a lot stuff and need physical power to handle and carry boxes, funitures or others every day. On of the biggest problem for me was to move my miniatures. I had only one big transport box. Not enough for all minis. But with a stable I brought all miniatures save an undestroyed to my new city.

No, it´s no all my stuff. A huge 12 tone truck took the rest ;)

HELLO HAMBURG! HERE I AM!

Let me say hello with one of my favourite band from this city RANTANPLAN.

The flat in Berlin is past and after one week here in the north of Germany the new flat looks nice. Enough time to explain the city because I will start to work in the middle of June.

And here is my new desktop. It is only for painting and in an extra room. Best place to enjoy the hobby!

I know there are some painters over here, but it would be a pleasure for me to know more about the painting part in Hamburg. So don´t hesitate to contact me ;)

It is currently Friday, and as I sit in the office waiting for the hours to count down, this Friday's time seems to be taking even longer than normal! Why? Because tomorrow begins another painting class where Mr Lee and Darkmessiah will meet up and cause havoc! This time in a small town called Cambridge!

And if that is not enough.. we are being graced with the Spanish painter known as Volomir who is the guest teacher for this weekend's class!

So expect a big review of this upon our return with more zany photos that might even rival the Strongbow Airbrush technique from the Airbrush class we did a while back!

It's now about one week ago some of the 5th dimension crew meet at Munich to drive to the duke of bavaria.

After a 6 hours trip to Munich it was late in the evening. Kyle aka MrLee was already arrived at Markus aka Malekith's home. So we have an great evening was talking, joking and some drinks.

Next morning Markus had made us a nice breakfirst with bread and fruits. Thanks for this fella.
So we picked up Stefan aka SkelettetS at the airport and drive together to the duke of Bavaria.
So,let the pictures tell the story from this on...